Dating isn’t easy — even for Olivia Culpo. As a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model, the 27-year-old is fully aware that being linked to her can be an intimidating prospect.
“What I struggle with is the people are, like … they don’t love you for you,” Culpo told Us Weekly exclusively when she, Danielle Herrington, Barbara Palvin, Jasmine Sanders and Kelsey Merritt stopped by our studio on Thursday, May 9. “Like, our families love us for us, our friends love us for us, and [with men] it’s like, without the hair and makeup and everything … they fall in love with the idea of you.”
However, Sports Illustrated “title or not,” she added, “it’s still hard.”
For her part, Sanders, 27, said she often wonders if guys “like Jasmine” or just her Instagram persona, Golden Barbie. “Once we wipe off [our makeup], take out hair extensions, all of that fun stuff, we don’t look like this at home,” she pointed out.
“I feel like we are a really intense group,” Sanders told Us. “I applaud any man that can walk up to this group of women.”
When Herrington, 25, noted that men do “get a little intimidated” around models, Palvin, also 25, chimed in, “That’s when you have to show your personality. They shouldn’t judge by our looks and how we walk into a room because, yeah, we’re going to walk in feeling confident, but we all have our insecurities and flaws and that’s what we have to show them and that’s when they’re going to fall in love with us.”
Culpo was last linked to Danny Amendola, whom she dated on and off since February 2016. The former couple broke up for good in March, one month before the 2012 Miss USA winner was spotted getting cozy with Zedd at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
The Detroit Lions player, 33, ranted about Culpo in a since-deleted Instagram post on April 19 in the wake of her outing with the DJ, 29. Amendola accused the model of wanting “to be noticed on the internet and in Hollywood to make money” before sharing private details about their “f–king crazy” sex. He ended his post by calling Zedd a “scrony [sic] little f–k.” The next day, the NFL player took “blame for the miscommunication.”
Watch the video above for more from Us Weekly’s interview with the stars of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, on newsstands now!
